High Beam Indicator - What Triggers it?

[TheDurk]

Nothing. It’s not needed if the extra ground path is taken away. A load resistor is only needed to flow extra current when a single resistive load is too big ( or absent in this case).

Voltage is always equal across all loads in a parallel circuit regardless.

The cold filaments in the stock setup are in SERIES with the indicator, reducing the voltage applied. I'm guessing the indicator wants to run at 4 or 5 volts and you might fry it with a full 12V+.

 

[turbodudey2]

The cold filaments in the stock setup are in SERIES with the indicator, reducing the voltage applied. I'm guessing the indicator wants to run at 4 or 5 volts and you might fry it with a full 12V+.

Nope. The indicator light bulb is a 12V light just like the rest of them. (12V, 1.4W if you look up the specs)

Plus, like was mentioned before, the cold fillament of a headlight bulb is close to zero resistance. (I just measured 0.5 ohms on one of mine). That about the same resistance as a jumper wire or direct short.

If the extra ground path describe above is removed, the load resistor business is moot.

 

[TheDurk]

Nope. The indicator light bulb is a 12V light just like the rest of them. (12V, 1.4W if you look up the specs)

Plus, like was mentioned before, the cold fillament of a headlight bulb is close to zero resistance. (I just measured 0.5 ohms on one of mine). That about the same resistance as a jumper wire or direct short.

If the extra ground path describe above is removed, the load resistor business is moot.

OK. I'll buy that.

 

[4Runner4Leon]

If you can find the light control switch and disconnect the light blue #17 wire, that would remove the extra path to ground (which you are not using for the low beams). Likewise you could disconnect that side of the ground wire at the J4 junction plug - interruption at any point along that ground path will do.

Then you can run power to the low beam wire on the 9003 plug directly from the high beam circuit.

Could you elaborate a bit on this plan? If you cut the L-B wire, don't you kill the low beam ground trigger? And if you cut the W-B wire to the J4 block, aren't you killing all the ground triggers?

And what do you mean by "run power to the low beam wire on the 9003 plug directly from the high beam circuit" - aren't they both already getting power from the same source, and then are grounded with different wires (L-B and R-Y) for triggering?

Maybe I'm not understanding the overall plan, but I'd like to figure it out since I lost my high beam indicator with the LED addition. Thanks!

 

[turbodudey2]

Could you elaborate a bit on this plan? If you cut the L-B wire, don't you kill the low beam ground trigger? And if you cut the W-B wire to the J4 block, aren't you killing all the ground triggers?

And what do you mean by "run power to the low beam wire on the 9003 plug directly from the high beam circuit" - aren't they both already getting power from the same source, and then are grounded with different wires (L-B and R-Y) for triggering?

Maybe I'm not understanding the overall plan, but I'd like to figure it out since I lost my high beam indicator with the LED addition. Thanks!

This only applies to DaMonkey's setup. He has bypassed the original wiring for his HID lights. Like you can see in his schematic:

If you want to get your hi beam indicator back because of LED headlights (that's the same boat I'm in), there are a couple other choices:

1. Add a high wattage load resistor in parallel with the low beams

or

2. Locate and isolate the power and ground wires going to the indicator bulb, and re-wire to create a true parallel circuit with hi beams. Essentially trading the original "switched power/constant ground" for a "constant power/switched ground" on the indicator light circuit

 

[phattyduck]

Here's another idea:

If you can find the light control switch and disconnect the light blue #17 wire, that would remove the extra path to ground (which you are not using for the low beams). Likewise you could disconnect that side of the ground wire at the J4 junction plug - interruption at any point along that ground path will do.

Then you can run power to the low beam wire on the 9003 plug directly from the high beam circuit.

No resistors, or extra relays needed...

If he does that, his low beams won't work.

Seriously guys. I'm and electrical engineer. I do this 8+ hours a day.

What I suggested costs less than $5, is 100% reversible and *will* work.

-Charlie

 

[turbodudey2]

Seriously guys. I'm and electrical engineer. I do this 8+ hours a day.

haha. Me too.

Removing the extra ground works too. I like the idea of not having burn extra watts on load resistors. It could be more tedious to locate that ground wire under the dash, but that's up to DaMonkey.

 

[4Runner4Leon]

This only applies to DaMonkey's setup. He has bypassed the original wiring for his HID lights.

Got it, that's what I suspected, thanks for clarifying!

 

[cdubsred]

High Beam indicator HID retrofit SOLVED

I did the HID Retrofit on my 1998 4runner, but couldn't get the high beam (brights) dash light to come on after I was done. Tried a number of things, but finally found an unrelated post on an old Tacoma forum and decided to give it a try. All I needed was an H4 Motorcycle Load Resistor.

Posted a youtube video as well -- hope it helps!

YouTube

 

[DaMonkey]

I did the HID Retrofit on my 1998 4runner, but couldn't get the high beam (brights) dash light to come on after I was done. Tried a number of things, but finally found an unrelated post on an old Tacoma forum and decided to give it a try. All I needed was an H4 Motorcycle Load Resistor.

Posted a youtube video as well -- hope it helps!

YouTube

That’s nice that it’s so easy to plug in and go. Pretty much the same fix but ready to go. However, that’s 50 watts burning and doing nothing whenever headlights are on.

I really like the idea of taking advantage of the reduced load with the retrofit and not load it back up that much just for the highbeam indicator.

I did phattys suggestion and it worked fine. Resistors are very small too. Tried just one 100 ohm resistor (rated 10w, burns 1.5 watts at 12.3v) but the indicator was a bit dim. Enough to pass inspection if you need one. Put another in the other side and it’s bright.

 

[zumogo]

That’s nice that it’s so easy to plug in and go. Pretty much the same fix but ready to go. However, that’s 50 watts burning and doing nothing whenever headlights are on.

I really like the idea of taking advantage of the reduced load with the retrofit and not load it back up that much just for the highbeam indicator.

I did phattys suggestion and it worked fine. Resistors are very small too. Tried just one 100 ohm resistor (rated 10w, burns 1.5 watts at 12.3v) but the indicator was a bit dim. Enough to pass inspection if you need one. Put another in the other side and it’s bright.

Is there anyway you can take a picture of where I can solder the resistor and a link of the part?
I just installed led headlights and the blue light is not working. I have solder things before, but I'm having a hard time trying to understand what wire I should solder. Some write up or pictures could help. I just drove home with high beams on and had no clue. My wife was amazed at how bright they where. Just when I got home I realized I was driving with high beams on. Thank got I have a rake on my truck. Some write up for dummies would be great.
Thank you

 

[4Runner4Leon]

Is there anyway you can take a picture of where I can solder the resistor and a link of the part?

I'm curious about that too. The simple resistor that phattyduck showed looks like a good option, but it needs to be spliced into a wire, so it's not truly 100% reversible. The load resistor with the H4 connectors, linked above, does look like it's easily reversible, but is pretty massive.

 

[zumogo]

I'm curious about that too. The simple resistor that phattyduck showed looks like a good option, but it needs to be spliced into a wire, so it's not truly 100% reversible. The load resistor with the H4 connectors, linked above, does look like it's easily reversible, but is pretty massive.

Yeah I'm thinking in buying the plug n play motorcycle one. I read on a taco forum to buy a female male cable and cut/splice that one and add a burn bulb to it.

 

[phattyduck]

I'm curious about that too. The simple resistor that phattyduck showed looks like a good option, but it needs to be spliced into a wire, so it's not truly 100% reversible. The load resistor with the H4 connectors, linked above, does look like it's easily reversible, but is pretty massive.

I used this trick on my WRX (also H4 bulbs) - one original headlight harness was used to trigger an aftemarket headlight harness and the other had the resistors plugged into the headlight connector. So, you can make it reversible - just not if you are plugged in with LED 'bulbs' on each side - though, even then, you can probably solder it on the LED 'bulb' side of the connection.

-Charlie

 

[Elle_Rav4]

A couple ways to fix:
1. Isolate the indicator light circuit and re-wire it to run in parallel with the hi beam circuit - it sounds like this should work well for your setup. This would probably not work with the stock wiring, because it would back feed voltage to the low beams as well.
[snip]

Anyone still lingering:

For a 4Runner (1996 or so) with LED hi and low beam headlights, I attach a wiring diagram of the proposed fix for the high beam indicator. The fix builds on the above. Would people share their thoughts on this, especially with regard to fuse and relay protection?

I come from Rav4world.com. This topic (high beam indicator light not working after installing LED headlights) is under discussion in the 1996-2000 Rav4 section. The 1996-2000 Rav4 headlight wiring uses the same design as that of the 1990s 4-Runners.

Else I am prepared to advise people to just get a single load resistor like the one at Motorcycle Headlight Load Resistor - H4 LED Headlight Bulbs | Super Bright LEDs (6 ohms, 50 watts). Many recommend this load resistor for their Toyota SUVs headlights, to fix the high beam indicator problem. As noted in this thread, the load resistor would have to be spliced in parallel to one of the Low Beam LEDs.

 

[19963.4lsr5]

I used a harness from Amazon to operate the headlights and have larger wires suppling the bulbs. The high beam indicator isn’t as bright as it was feeding through the low beam filament because the coil resistance of the low beam relay has higher resistance. But now I can use anything I want.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[chapolito]

For anyone head scratching still, here are some photos from following the instructions from [MENTION=139000]phattyduck[/MENTION]

Two 100 ohm 5w resistors in parallel:

Plugged into the extra H4 connector (low beam + to -) since my projectors only use one side:

 

[cullowheebandit]

Sweet setup with the relays, love the redundancy. The high beam indicator might not work 'cause the relays draw less current than stock bulbs. Try a 10W resistor in parallel with the high beam solenoid to mimic the load. Fixed a similar issue on my Tacoma. Check the ground path too.

 

[phattyduck]

Funny to see my post from 6 years ago. I have since added "CANBUS" resistors to my 4Runner to work with the upgraded harness to guarantee the appropriate load for high/low operation. I modified it a bit - plugged it into the passenger side and bolted it down to the core support to keep it from rubbing through anything while offroading.

-Charlie